Accused attacker faced charges in 2010

MANCHESTER — A man accused of confining a woman in his vehicle by holding a knife near her throat Thursday night, stopping only when she sprayed him with pepper spray and fled, was arraigned Friday in Circuit Court-Manchester District Division.

Osahenrumwen Ojo, 35, of 61 Pennacook St., could enter no plea to felony charges of criminal restraint and criminal threatening, so a probable cause hearing was set for July 24. A resisting arrest charge was set for trial Aug. 14 Because Ojo was out on bail from a June 23 simple assault charge, scheduled for trial July 24, the police prosecutor filed a motion to revoke Ojo’s bail on the earlier charge, and he was ordered held pending a hearing Monday.

Court documents show police said the woman later told them she had met Ojo, who said his name was Dennis, several days earlier in the grocery store and they had traded phone numbers.

She said he invited her to his house Thursday night, giving her a Sagamore Street address, but when she arrived and found it to be a business, she called him and he invited her to join him in his vehicle, a Pontiac SUV.

She said he asked her if she wanted “to have some fun.” She said she told him she wanted to leave and he brandished a knife, climbing on top of her and threatening to kill her.

The court documents show she told police she was able to use a pepper spray container on her keychain, forcing him to back off. She then opened the door and ran.

Three years ago, Ojo was accused of kidnapping a woman at gunpoint, but that case did not go to trial.

In October 2011, prosecutors decided not to go forward with prosecution because the alleged victim had moved to Germany and did not want to return for trial.

Ojo had been accused of jumping into the back seat of that woman’s car when she was stopped at a red light at West Merrimack Street at about 12:30 a.m. May 9, 2010, and ordering her at gunpoint to drive toward Hooksett. The woman told police her abductor told her to drive into the rear parking lot of the U-Haul Store at 443 Hooksett Road and shut off the ignition.

The woman escaped, after fighting off her abductor and running toward Hooksett Road, where she flagged down a passing motorist who called police. The kidnapper fled. Ojo was arrested about a half-mile from where the woman got help from a motorist, within minutes of her escape. He was told she had identified him in a photo lineup. A toy gun, matching the description given by the woman, was found in the area where Ojo was arrested.

The arresting officer in the 2010 case, Joseph C. Lorenzo, was one of the detectives involved in Thursday night’s arrest.

Court documents show he and Detective Patrick Maguire knew Ojo had been given a summons for loitering, after parking for hours in the lot of the Van Otis store on Elm Street June 1; was charged with assault for allegedly grabbing the chest area of a woman June 23 on Sagamore Street, and matched the description of a man who had sexually assaulted a woman in the area of 27 Sagamore St. July 7.

The detectives said they observed a man in the vehicle matching the one allegedly involved in the three previous incidents parked on Pennacook Street, near Pine Street, about 8:15 p.m. Thursday.

Nearly two hours later, he was still there, the detectives said. But, as they watched, the driver pulled away and drove around the block, parking this time on Sagamore Street, near Bay Street.

At about 10:45 p.m., police said, a second vehicle parked nearby and the woman driver got out and entered the SUV. Moments later, officers saw the SUV passenger door open and the woman run away. Police said the SUV sped off, turning north on Bay Street, where the detectives were able to stop it.

Maguire found a Leatherman tool, opened to a four-inch knife, just inside the driver’s door of Ojo’s vehicle. He also noticed the odor of pepper spray and said Ojo displayed physical signs of having been pepper sprayed. Maguire wrote that Ojo did not respond to commands to step out of the car, continuing to clench the steering wheel, and had to be pulled from the SUV.